A Yuletide Song (21 December 2018)

[A Elf’s Winter Solstice Night Song from Tara Lough]

Hail!  Hail!  The Winter Solstice_

coming ‘round from far and near;

in its frocks of white and dazzle

the joyful City of the Sídhe we hear!

At Yuletide dolmens we sing aloud_

in lost harmonies of old Faery modes!

Fly we now upon our gilded brooms_

with Fire & Eros for Yuletide!                         1

Vocal and Merry_ the Solstice Elves,

take belled ribbons from the shelves

and jingle on_

sounding olden cacophonies!

Jangling bells strung up in mystic threes,

Hark!  _The heralding Lady comes near,

renewing prophecies at sacred trees!

Shimmering in their frosted frocks,

we witness the Elves strolling about,

mystagogic in our morning walks!                              2

“To the Stones! To the Stones!” they cry_

“to re‑awaken our Earthen destiny!”

  Come with tokens of the Yule & sing

with Blitzen prancing on the wind!

  Druids waken from their AEON of sleep

  to un‑bind the mundane; keeping troth

               with Bards of the Tuath;

  Wassailing Alban Arthuan^[1] with a keen!^[2]            3

“Here we come!  To the stones!” Elves cry,

 And then they prophesy—

“Light the fires, sing olden songs_

Carrol around the Pentacular Circle;

Dance, sing, light the torches we bring,

Cross┼Over and come back again_

               for the World is ever-turning!

Truth is polyvalent_ and GOD is flying_

upon Her ever-salvific broom!

Come and flow with GOD_ we pray –

into the light of a New Solstice Day!”                       4

Hail the Solstice!  Hail the Dream!

Come to the Fires and let us sing

Of dew-drops for the souls of the lost;

our breath warming their faded frost!

Conjure new bliss out of the cracks

in the world’s sidewalks, and relax_

SHE WHO IS shall waeccan^[3] us all

                                            _at last!!!                        5

Skirting ráths^[4] in a snow-glory we rise_

gliding above the fires, the Stones glowing!

Approaching Ancient Avenues of Avalon

we embrace yestertimes and days yet to come,

in flights so solemn and yet so ecstatic_

that we transcend what we apprehend!

Besom in hand and heart in the dolmen,

uling spirits rejoice in the mused aire!                       6

And She comes_

Her light gleaming the Heathen Hills,

where we dance and fall-down,

enthralled in Her beauteous gown,

dancing betwixt the Stones

           in golden fires gyring!

Her Inspiration en-fires

        our Deepening Hearts,

rendering out joy in true ecstatic fits!

Hail Christ our Stag

               in the Merrie Olde Yule;

Here we shall find New Life to Dance_

rhyming within an Olde Yuling rhyme!                    7

Here we come_

to warm our merry cockles

near the fires of an Olde Mystic Way!                      8

“Covet Nothing_ Here Comes a New Day!!!”

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^[1] Alban Arthuan – an old Pagan name for the Winter Solstice. It was the ancient British Druids who called the Winter Solstice Alban Arthuan.

^[2] Wassailing was originally the province of the poor, destitute and outcasts.  To Wassail Alban Arthuan would be to beseech succor and sustenance from the old festival of Winter Solstice; seeking for an end to poverty, destitution and being outcast from the commonweal.  To Wassail Alban Arthuan “with a Keen” is to make a lament and protest against injustice.

^[3]  Waeccan – refers to that state of consciousness in which we are most aware of our environs and awake; a state in which we are not ‘asleep at the wheel’ of our lives.  To become waeccan is to wake up.

^[4] Ráth – A ‘house’ built half underground, with a low-conical roof showing above ground, inhabited by the Sluagh-Sídhe (i.er., the Faeryfolk; the People of the Sídhe.